Nothing's Perfect, But We Can Try
by Akatsuki Child
Summary: First, there was a fight; next, there was sorrow; then, there was pain; fourth, there was a solution; lastly, there was a promise. Percabeth. Slight OOC.


**I actually started this a long time ago, and I finally finished it! I was rather happy with it. Enjoy and review please! IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE END, PLEASE READ!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO!**

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**The Fight**

There was tension between them, that much was obvious. Any by-stander could see that. They, too, were not oblivious; no—they were well aware of it, and it was only a matter of time before they fought, before the ticking bomb finally exploded.

When it happened, it took them completely off guard, despite them being fully conscious of the strain between them. It was like a rubber band that was being pulled apart, and finally it reached its limit and it snapped back, surprising them both.

Percy was doing the dishes when Annabeth came home from work. She put some blueprints for a new building on the cluttered table and took her coat off.

"I'm home!" She called.

"Hi, Annabeth," She heard from the living room. She looked and saw Grover with a camera hanging around his neck.

"Hey, Grover. What's with the camera?"

"Oh, it's, uh, just a new hobby I picked up…" He replied, blushing a little.

She chuckled and went into the kitchen. She found Percy with his back to her, doing dishes.

"Hey, Percy," She said. "I'm home."

He just hummed at her in acknowledgement. She just sighed and sat down at the table to work on the blueprints. She tried to spread them out so she could see them better, but the table was so cluttered she could barely open them.

She scowled at the chaos on her temporary desk. Most of it was Percy's.

"Percy!" She called. "Come clean up your stuff!"

She heard the water turn off and he stomped into the room, his eyes narrowed. "You could say please," He mumbled, getting his stuff. Most of it was stuff from when they were at Camp Half-Blood, like his pen/sword Riptide. He put it in his pocket. _Just like old times,_ he thought ruefully.

"Better?" He asked with an edge of sarcasm to his voice.

She blinked. "What's _your_ problem?"

"My problem is that I can't bring out some of my stuff without getting yelled at!"

She huffed. "You're being really immature right now! First off, I didn't yell at you; I just asked you to move your stuff. Second, if I don't ask you to put your stuff away, it stays out here forever!"

"Uh, guys?" Grover interrupted nervously. They ignored him.

"Oh, but it's okay for you to bring out your blueprints and spread them out over the table?!"

"That's because it's for work, you jerk! At least I'm _doing_ something! You don't even have a job!"

"Yeah, because the building that I used to work in burned down, and if you haven't noticed, the economy isn't the best right now!"

By this time, they were standing chest to chest, him staring down into her stormy eyes and red face, her looking up into his cold dark eyes. They heard a click in the background, but they just ignored that as well. Their only focus was on each other.

She shook her head slowly. "Percy, I love you to death, but sometimes I just wish you would disappear!"

He clenched his teeth together and took a deep breath to try and calm himself. "I have to get out of here." He said suddenly. He grabbed his coat and stomped out the door.

"I'll just, uh, go now…" Grover said awkwardly. He placed something on the table and then scuttled out of the apartment.

Annabeth screamed out in frustration and made her way towards their room. She slammed the door shut and flopped onto the bed. She was still angry, but after a few minutes, she finally calmed down. Their fight replayed in her head, and she bit her lip.

_What just happened?_

**The Sorrow**

She didn't hear from him that night nor the next day. She was worried, and she was mostly angry. But she wasn't just angry with him. She was angry with herself, too. Why had she been such a jerk? Why had she snapped at him so badly?

On the other hand, he really did need to remember to put his stuff away, otherwise it would sit out and they would forget about it.

She sighed. She knew that he was having a hard time getting a job, so why did she accuse him of being lazy?

After thinking about everything, she felt like a jerk, and she wished they had sorted things out differently. Besides feeling guilty now, she felt sad.

"_Percy, I love you to death, but sometimes I just wish you would disappear!"_

Well, she thought bitterly, it looks like I'm getting my wish.

Two days passed, and still she didn't hear anything from her Seaweed Brain. She sat at the table, tears leaking down her face. She wasn't sobbing her eyes out like most girls would have been right now, but she considered herself to be on the verge of doing just that—the calm before the storm.

Meanwhile, Percy was currently sitting on a hotel bed, his head in his hands. He was trying to figure out the whole situation. Why had they fought about something so trivial? Why was it such a big deal?

_But it's not just that_, he mused, _it's everything that had happened leading up to that. _

All the small fights that they _thought_ they had resolved came back and fueled their anger for each other.

He shook his head. Why was it so hard now? Why couldn't things—for once—be easy?

Simple. Because it wouldn't be life then.

He sighed. He owed her an apology, but he wasn't sure he should go back yet. He would wait until things cooled down with her. Besides, he himself wasn't completely calm. The last thing they needed was to yell at each other more and make this situation worse than it already was.

And the sad part? He knew this was coming. They _both_ knew, and yet when they did fight, all that knowledge flew out the door.

_What's done is done. I just have to try and patch it up the best I can. _

**The Pain**

Annabeth sat on her bed, staring at a photo album of her and her friends at Camp Half-Blood.

The first picture was one of her and Luke when they got to Camp for the first time. She smiled at her seven-year-old self with the fourteen-year-old Luke. It was hard to imagine that she had ever loved him more than a brother.

She turned the page and saw one of her, Percy, and Grover after they had returned Zeus' lightning bolt. They were battered and bruised and they looked tired, but they looked heroic at the same time.

She flipped through some more pages and landed on one of her and Percy sitting at the pavilion talking. It had to have been after the war because she and him were eating blue cake.

She smiled. That was both a sad and a good day: sad because Luke had died, but good because she and Percy had finally gotten together. It was one of her best memories.

She turned to the very last page, but there wasn't a picture on it. She frowned. She thought she had filled this photo album completely.

She sighed as more tears came from all the good memories they had together.

It hurt so much to be away from him. She couldn't think clearly; she was always thinking about him and if he was alright. She wasn't mad any more. No—she was worried and scared, and right now, she really needed to see him.

But deep down, she knew he would come back when he was ready. When he wanted to see her, he would come.

She sighed sadly again and her eyes got blurred with unshed tears. But _when_ was when?

--

_Pathetic…just plain pathetic._

Percy was in his hotel room. Why was he calling himself pathetic? Well, he would get up and open the door to leave and go back to Annabeth, but then he would chicken out and retreat back into his room.

_What's wrong with me? _

He shook his head as he stared out the window. Down below, the setting sun glistened off of the windows of other buildings. A couple was walking hand in hand down the street, and he was reminded of when Annabeth and he were happy and not…full of tension.

He missed it. He missed her and all her antics. He missed the way she would mumble in her sleep, and then snuggle into him. He missed how she could talk about architecture for an hour straight. He missed how she would come home and hug him everyday, each time seeming like she never wanted to let go…He loved her, and nothing was going to change that, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to go home quite yet. His heart was breaking with every minute they were away because of this stupid fight.

_So move!_ He shouted at himself. He tried to move, but couldn't.

He sighed. Who was he kidding? He knew why he didn't go.

He was scared. He was afraid that she wouldn't let him back into her life, that she wouldn't be able to forgive him. Annabeth wasn't the type of person to hold grudges, but that woman had a fury like no other, and when she got mad, the sucker she was mad at better run for his life. But this was Percy we were talking about, her boyfriend, best friend, and they guy she went to for anything and everything.

He was her Seaweed Brain.

**The Solution**

His fists clenched together and he growled.

_I'm acting like a damn coward!_

And he was anything but a coward.

He suddenly rushed to the door, wrenched it open, and bolted down to the lobby. He checked out and quickly made his way to his Annabeth.

--

Annabeth had just gotten out of the shower when she heard the door open.

_Percy? _She thought hopefully. She quickly pulled on her sweats and ran to the door to find a rugged and haggard looking Percy.

She stopped a couple feet away from him. The two stared at each other, a tense and awkward silence consuming them.

Annabeth opened her mouth to say something, but Percy beat her to it.

"I'm sorry," He said, staring at his feet. "I know that I can be a little difficult. Kudos to you for putting up with me…Anyways, I know that things must be stressful for you—" Annabeth snorted at this, "—but I'm going to do my best to help you. I can change…that is, if you'll still have me."

At this point, he was staring into her stormy gray eyes. He watched as she smiled and ran up to him, crushing him in a hug. He sighed in relief as he hugged her back.

"Of course, Seaweed Brain," She whispered. "You'll always be mine."

**The Promise**

His grip around her tightened. "Of course, Wise Girl," He mumbled back. "…You know, nothing's perfect…but we can try. I promise."

Annabeth sniffled and nodded. She buried her face into his neck, allowing herself to revel in the familiar Percy smell she had missed for the past couple of days. She then pulled back and gave him a kiss before hugging him again.

"I love you, Percy," She mumbled.

"I love you, too."

--

That night, both Percy and Annabeth had slept peacefully. She had snuggled up to him like she had always done (Percy just about died of happiness), and Percy in turn had wrapped his arm around her small waist.

They had woken up and she had made him a big breakfast. Things were going good. Of course, they both knew that things would never be perfect. That was life; you had your ups and downs. You just had to fight through those bad times.

That morning, when Annabeth was taking Percy's plate, she noticed something on the table. Grover had left it there that day they had fought. She picked it up and saw it was a picture of them standing chest to chest, fighting.

She blinked. Why had Grover taken this picture? Then suddenly, an idea struck her. She put the plates in the sink then hurried to her and Percy's room.

"Annabeth?" Percy asked, confused. She didn't answer, so he followed her. When he entered, he saw her sitting on the bed with a photo album in front of her. She finished writing something under a picture and then stopped to admire her work. Percy sat behind her and looked over her shoulder to see a picture of them fighting. Underneath the picture was a caption:

_Our first fight._

Percy raised a brow at Annabeth. "You want to put that in there?"

"Yup," She replied. "It's important, even if it is a bad memory."

She leaned back into Percy's chest and gazed at the picture. Like he had said, nothing's perfect, but they could try.

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**Okay, so important A/N: I need some beta readers! I have this story that I told you about a long time ago, and I had someone beta it, but they have had it for like a year now, and when I asked that person about it, they didn't respond. So if you are interested, please review or PM me. I'll take as many as I can get!!**

**Review please!! No flames please!! Thanks for reading!**

**--Akatsuki Child**


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